Boulder County Business

Tom Roiniotis is a busy man. He is building and operating Longmont's young state-of-the-art community broadband network known as NextLight, a system so fast and so affordable that it flew past its five-year growth goal in less than 36 months and new customers continue to line-up for the service.

"The first thing that hit me is that it's two competitive companies that are now one. The second thing that hit me is how will it affect my ability to manage the NextLight network?" he said.

In a Wednesday, Feb. 7, 2007 file photo, the company logo is displayed on the sign leading to the campus of Level 3 Communications in the northwest Denver suburb of Broomfield, Colo. CenturyLink is paying about $24 billion to buy Level 3, to expand its telecommunication services for businesses. (David Zalubowski / AP)

Demand for ever larger broadband pipes capable of carrying more videos, more texts, more live music, speeches and data is exploding.

Last year, the use of mobile data alone more than doubled, according to the national trade group CTIA-The Wireless Association.

In tech-heavy Boulder County the cry for more modern, high-quality broadband has done nothing but grow louder.

Roiniotis, like most service providers, uses several companies to provide the broadband backbones that link NextLight to the outside world to ensure that if one system goes down, there is enough redundancy to ensure service isn't interrupted. Level 3 is one of several backbone providers Longmont uses.

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Roiniotis said that may change if the newly merged company begins competing head-to-head with NextLight.

"We're never going to be reliant on one particular organization," Roiniotis said. "You can't be in this industry. It's just more of a basic concern you have when two companies merge and reduce competition in the provision of backhaul bandwidth."

NextLight crews are seen near Heatherhill Circle and Renaissance Drive in Longmont on Wednesday. (Matthew Jonas / Staff Photographer)

And he does have some concerns that CenturyLink, against whom he competes in the residential world, will, post-merger, be able to offer the kind of high-quality, super-fast service NextLight does because CenturyLink will have access to the same high-quality fiber via Level 3 that NextLight owns.

Seventeen miles to the west, in Boulder, Spike Ilacqua has watched the broadband industry morph for more than 20 years. He is founder of indra.com, one of the oldest Internet service companies in Boulder,

He's done battle with monopolies such as CenturyLink, demanding better service for his customers back when it was known locally as U.S. West and then Qwest, which once were the only places to get broadband connectivity. He's also taken advantage of the gaps these mega players leave open for small entrepreneurial companies like his.

NextLight Broadband Field Supervisor Spencer Speiser ties a line to a fiber optic cable near Heatherhill Circle and Renaissance Drive in Longmont on Wednesday. (Matthew Jonas / Staff Photographer)

"At a high-level I think it's too bad," Ilacqua said. "There is one less choice in the world."

He, like hundreds of other business owners, envies what Longmont has been able to build.

In that city, for instance, customers can buy 1GB service (1000 MB) for $50 a month. In Boulder, Ilacqua can buy only a 40MB service for $30 a month from CenturyLink.

"In addition to speed, " Ilacqua said, "Longmont fiber is superior because it is synchronous, meaning you get 1GB upload speed. Most consumer type Internet connections have slower upload speeds then downloads. For example my CenturyLink is limited to 5MB, which is actually considered quite fast. Slow upload speeds mean the connections aren't suitable for business uses like running servers."

With the merger, CenturyLink hopes to acquire the same kind of competitive muscle that major players such as Comcast and AT&T now have with their ability to deliver major entertainment streaming services through their own modern broadband networks. Neither CenturyLink or Level 3 responded to requests for interviews.

For another local broadband network firm, Boulder's Zayo Group, the mega merger means more opportunity, pure and simple.

"Assuming the acquisition goes through, it will leave Zayo as the only independent provider with deep dense fiber networks and inner city fiber throughout North America," said Zayo Chief Executive Officer Dan Caruso in an earnings call last week.

"As networks get combined, customers will seek additional diversity which is an opportunity for Zayo," he said.

Now, following Longmont's lead, the city of Boulder is eyeing its own municipal broadband network capable of providing the same kind of sophisticated, affordable Internet service that NextLight offers. And Lafayette and Superior voters, just last week, authorized a similar effort to begin.

Boulder City Councilman Bob Yates is retired, but for decades he was one of the top executives at Level 3. As Boulder contemplates what kind of network to build and chats with potential partners, Yates doesn't expect the CenturyLink/Level 3 merger to have a major impact.

Because CenturyLink already provides services in the city, it isn't likely to a player in the new broadband network because the city wants more suppliers, not fewer.

"We're looking for a competitive provider, but CenturyLink is already here," he said. And Level 3 provides some backbone service in the city as well, though on a small scale.

"We're trying to create diversity so that people have more choices. The last thing we want to do is see the number of choices reduced," Yates said.

In the coming months, Roiniotis will be watching the merger's progress closely. It is projected to close late next year, likely in the third quarter. And he continues to have faith that his lightning-fast, finely tuned network will be able to go head-to-head with whatever the newly merged CenturyLink/Level 3 may offer.

"The demand we're seeing says that if you're going to provide a superior product at a lower cost, it's a no brainer that people will come," he said.

Correction: An earlier version of this article misspelled the name of indra.com founder Spike Ilacqua.

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